quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a rolling new york times thread

The Uber one is fine right up until
“If you’re going to the airport, you use UberX, who cares,” said Mr. Heitzler, the Venice artist. “But if you have to go to a party at the Chateau” — the see-and-be-seen celebrity-magnet Chateau Marmont — “you at least go black car. Or even a giant S.U.V. There’s nothing better than getting out of a giant S.U.V. at the Chateau by yourself.”

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Sunday, 2 November 2014 23:59 (Yesterday) Permalink

This is a world I'll never, ever understand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opinion/sunday/the-terrible-32s.html?_r=0

hooo boy, you can imagine the daughter of that author being VERY pissed

That was just gross.

That phenomenon is way too far past funny or charming by the time a person hits 32 for that article to be amusing.

in re uber, just saw a story about a woman who took an uber for her birthday not realizing 9x surge pricing was in effect, basically ended up with like a $350 tab for a 20 minute cab, which equaled most of her rent money for the month. (I assume she was probably either drunk or not a regular uber user to miss that, although I wouldn't know, having never taken an uber).

the thing about that dopey 32 piece is it has the same qualities as the onion editorial cartoon piece where the guy is railing about not getting paper money for his empty bottles or whatever; there's the deep despicable andy rooney sickness of an unearned, hateful whiine

The app will tell you if there's surge pricing in effect, but it could be easy to miss and from my experience, there's no real rhyme or reason to why surge pricing goes into effect. xp

The one time I considered Uber I went through the whole process of dling the app and setting up the account and then saw that the price was exactly the same as a yellowcab (which are easy to get late at night by my job). P much the only time I take cabs is on work's dime when I have to stay super late, so it's not much of a thing for me.

hooo boy, you can imagine the daughter of that author being VERY pissed

― Steve 'n' Seagulls and Flock of Van Dammes (forksclovetofu), Monday, November 3, 2014 4:30 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Pretty sure the authors are not old enough to have a 32-year-old daughter.

maybe. she is responsible for this as well.
http://thehairpin.com/2014/01/the-best-time-i-learned-my-last-name-means-blow-job

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/realestate/an-east-village-apartment-share-for-recent-graduates.html

Can we refer to these people as...quiddiots?

oh hey they almost lived above rosario's!

So they signed on for a year, paying a broker fee of 12 percent of a year’s rent, or a bit more than $4,000. Because all the rooms are comparable in size, they split the rent evenly, at $933 each, with one paying $994 on a rotating basis.

yeah, there's no whining or absurdity there? They sacrificed space to live where they wanted - which you can get away with when you're 23, and lots of people in other parts of the country would say about people living in Brooklyn/etc..

I have no idea what their "means" are, mostly just smdh at the NYC rental market.

(Marge Simpsin voice): "Hmmmm . . . it's true, but he shouldn't say it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/opinion/sunday/pricey-doughnuts-pricier-homes-priced-out-readers.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1

Jay Kallio
NY, NY 3 minutes ago

I am probably one of the poorest subscribers the Times has, having struggled through two cancers, the second of which is totally disabling and terminal, and I live on approximately $800/month. Being homebound, I splurge on internet access and a Times subscription, although I usually cannot afford to eat the last week of the month. I became a subscriber after the Times paid me $300 to participate in several focus groups last year, as someone who has be a loyal reader for 40 plus years. I had previously been one of the many readers "left behind" when the paywall was adopted. I used the money to purchase a subscription.

I'm delighted to see all the high end coverage of things that bear zero relevance to my life, because I know the advertising so accrued is what lowers the subscription rate so that people like me can afford access. I'm thrilled you can finance the investigative reporting that would not otherwise be possible. I worked in health care all my life and our wealthy patients were essential to paying adequate fees to compensate for the unreimbursed care, and poorly paid services we provide on a regular basis. Many businesses use this model to provide a sliding scale to those who cannot afford full price.

When I see the mansions and luxury goods I know you are not publishing those articles for people like me. You are going out there and doing years of painstaking, dangerous, challenging, groundbreaking journalism for me. That, my friends, is exactly how I like it!

that one has to be a joke, right

http://hometowns.cyber-net-village.com/Orlando/7302/Rick/sportzone/misc/folders/Jean/images/me_frame.jpg

I asked the executive editor, Dean Baquet, whom he has in mind when he directs coverage and priorities.

“I think of The Times reader as very well-educated, worldly and likely affluent,” he said. “But I think we have as many college professors as Wall Street bankers.”

we got both kinds

rich AND well-off

My thoughts exactly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/nyregion/conflicts-in-new-york-city-parks-as-homeless-population-rises.html

two things:

1. you couldn't interview more than one homeless person for this story?
2. unless you're on your own property (or in a dog run), it's never, ever cool to unleash your dogs. that's something that pisses me off beyond belief.

Other areas are still grappling with large clusters of homeless people, which can sometimes lead to clashes. One morning this fall, Cheryl Pientka was walking her cairn terrier, Sasha, in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn. While she almost never lets her dog off the leash, on this day she did, near a group of homeless people who had taken to sleeping under the trees between the tennis courts and DeKalb Avenue.

“She went over and started sniffing a man who was lying on the ground, and he jumped up and started swearing,” said Ms. Pientka, a literary agent, who recalled that the man threatened sexual assault. “He was over six feet tall and 200 pounds. It was totally unacceptable.”

Just happened to let her dog off the leash near where some vagrants were reposing

today someone let their leashed dog come up and sniff me while I was waiting for the bus. I recoiled, and they walked away silently mocking my recoiling. In conclusion, dog people are entitled fucking shits.

Pretty ugly article but the readers pick comments are very good, hearteningly so

Guess it's not just profs and bankers reading after all

that reminds me, getting cold out, time to make some donations

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/nyregion/they-say-art-is-dead-in-new-york-theyre-wrong.html

But what you cannot argue — at least, not according to many artists — is that art in New York is dead. Yes, the rents are high, but people are adapting by living in increasingly inventive ways, at places like the Silent Barn, an arts collective in Bushwick, Brooklyn, or 3B, an artist-run bed-and-breakfast near Brooklyn’s Borough Hall. Yes, the finance economy has brought about the $50 entree and the $3,000 studio apartment, but it’s also provided decent-paying side jobs, not to mention an audience.

“It was bumming us out that everything had to be so legal these days,” he said. “Fire codes, liquor licenses, whatever. But then we thought, ‘Wait a second, do we even really need a space? We’ve got five school buses at our disposal. We can go wherever we want.' ” Now, he said, the city’s entire landscape is his nightclub. “The magic,” he said, “is still happening.”

To survive for the long term, we have to grow up and have adult conversations about stuff like loans and workers’ compensation,” said Nathan Cearley, a Silent Barn veteran, who also works as a schoolteacher, plays in a “void drone” band called Long Distance Poison and serves on the collective’s working group for logistical issues, which is known as Risky Bizness.

Fuck that city.

"living in increasingly inventive ways"

Like in their cars with their children or on the couches of increasingly irritated friends and family. How bohemian and artistic!

Also "void drone" LOL forever

“In some sense, the nightmare in New York isn’t being broke, it’s being stuck in a shoe box writing emails into the void asking to play at someone’s bar or to do a show at someone’s gallery,” said Joe Ahearn, a founding member of the space. “There’s lots of things we don’t do well, but one thing we do do well is to combat that kind of isolation.”

that's really the best quote. fight the true nightmare...

also: he said do do.

The silent barn is great i contributed to their kickstarter when the old venue was shut down because lol totally illegal. Good bands have come from that scene and they put on good shows and foster people making nice art i'm sorry the article gives the impression that they have fuck-all to do with gatsby themed parties. Of the many problems with BK, the existence of an actually-shoestring somehow-worthwhile hanging on by a thread DIY scene isn't one of them.

What ended up happening that night was proof that it was not. At the appointed hour, 15 or 20 of us gathered in the lobby, eyeing one another and trying to blend into a crowd of innocent tourists. A few minutes later, the agent, indeed in a beret, rose from a sofa and strolled out the door.

All of us followed as she ducked around the corner and whisked us into a building — a large commercial structure, empty, dusty, obviously under construction. With no idea where we were going, we were led up 16 flights of stairs, in the dark, and then out onto the roof. There we saw the elevator room, a small brick box, which had been converted into a cramped, clandestine jazz club. A barman in a trilby offered cocktails; a chandelier of candles dangled from the ceiling. As the night went on, musicians played, an illusionist performed and the assorted guests — painters, filmmakers, an aerialist just back from Brazil — stood among the huge industrial motors, talking about the only-in-New-York-ness of it all, which was, of course, the point.

It is super-hard for me to imagine anyone involved in any way in this making any worthwhile art, but you know, that's probably just my prejudices talking. Tons of douchy people have made great art.

Mr. Cearley then went on: “If David Byrne isn’t interested in art anymore” — in his email Mr. Byrne said that he was — “I suppose that’s good to know. But we are. So instead complaining about the end of art in New York, I’d love to see him save it. Because he can write us a check anytime he wants.”

My daddy won't won't pay for me to live here, maybe Mr Talking Head should.

It is super-hard for me to imagine anyone involved in any way in this making any worthwhile art, but you know, that's probably just my prejudices talking. Tons of douchy people have made great art.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, December 27, 2014 9:57 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that description is this other thing having nothing to do with the silent barn -- the "here's some stuff in brooklyn" quality of the article makes it really hard to tell to be fair

xp i like the paragraph immediately preceding where the guy suggests Byrne should "invest" in real estate to make rent cheaper for artists. there's no way for me to formulate a sentence about this kind of nonsense entitlement that won't make me sound like a dickhead, so pretty much fuck this guy and fuck this article.

bring on emergent second cities imo

The east coast is lousy with random places semi-convenient to Amtrak just begging to emerge.

Drop a few dozen artists into Springfield MA and I'm sure the place would perk right up

maybe people don't just all move to new york for a scene. i mean some do, sure. but maybe some people just are like in new york. and they live there and who knows grew up there and work there and also they would like a place to go and make things and share it with people. is that a possibility now, or is it all necessarily going to go to shit because new york.

This article reminds me of the early Aziz skit set in Other Music where he mentions a Devendra Banhart concert someone is throwing in a dumpster.

Artists are supposed to live near poor people. Are you telling me there aren't any poor people left in New York City?

http://slackwise.net/files/images/Simpsons/Simpsons%20-%20Homeless%20to%20Mailbox.gif